The Proposal
by pepperony42
Summary: "Will you marry me?" Then the auditorium was consumed by silence. Everyone stared at Pepper, who couldn't take her eyes of Tony's. The man, still on his knees, couldn't move a single part of his body, not even to breathe. And so he remained, until he heard the following words coming from her thin lips: "Of course I do..."


Pepper returned to the auditorium complaining internally, since she couldn't reveal in loud voice, to all those journalists, what had just happened on the other side of the door.

She felt that Tony followed her quickly, but she didn't look back. Just walked on to the stage and scratched her neck, before start to talk:

"Good afternoon. First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay. There were some setbacks, but now we can proceed with the announcement that Mr. Stark came to make. Well, I won't stay here stalling you even more; So I'll go straight to the point. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to call to the stage... Tony Stark.

Then the journalists received the man with applause, until he took over the microphones, when they fell silent.

"Thank you, Miss. Potts." Tony watched her get off the stage with a serene look, hiding the fact that he was burning into emotions in the inside. Her image brought him peace, but it was replaced by the nervous, when he faced the rest of the audience.

"Well, I …"

"Is that about the hijacking attempt of the airplane carrying the Avengers' belongings and weapons?"

"To whom did you sell the Avengers Tower?"

"Did you find Captain America and his gang?"

"Will you invite the Spider-Man from YouTube to join the Avengers?"

"Actually I didn't come here to talk about any of these topics." Tony lied. His first intention was to announce Spider-Man as the newest member of the Avengers, indeed.

"Are you and Miss. Potts back together?" A journalist in the background caught his attention.

"Why do you think that?" Stark asked seriously, ignoring the other questions.

"I just guess."

"Oh, you just guess?" He repeated, looking furious.

At that moment there was silence in the auditorium. All guests were frightened by the dark look that Stark directed to the journalist, who swallowed hard. And the climate of tension remained until, after a dramatic pause, the man on stage chuckled and broke the frown:

"You're good. Yes, we're back." He smiled at the journalist, who sighed in relief.

Then the flashes started to blink even more, all the journalists started to speak at the same time, the place became a cauldron. Everyone knew that Stark would make a big announcement, but they were not waiting for that.

"But it wasn't just because of that that I came here. No…" Tony became serious again, and waited for the crowd to calm down. "I wanna tell a story. Miss. Potts, could you approach, please?" He asked, then watched the woman take the stage, knowing that she was mentally counting to ten (or one thousand), trying not to strangle him.

"I still think I can thing in something better than…"

"Game over, you have already said yes. Now it's done." He interrupted her whispers, before taking courage and begin to speak in front of the microphones:

"Back to 2008, when I was in that cave, Dr. Yinsen and I had a talk about getting out of that place and going back to those who were waiting for us. He told me about his family and asked if I had someone waiting for me out there, if I had someone to come back to. I was about to say no, when I realized that yes, I had someone to back to: That's you." He looked in her eye to say. "That day I started to find out what I really felt for you; and I promised myself that, one day, if I could get out of that cave, and I would do; So I would declare myself to you. So I escaped from the cave and got this ring…" Tony lifted the object and journalists got excited, knowing what was coming next. "And I asked Happy to always carry it around; because at any moment I could do what I'm about to do, and I'd need it. Well...it took almost 10 years...but I'm finally doing it." He knelt. "So in front of all these people, because you know I love an audience…" Everyone in the room laughed, including Pepper, who wasn't containing herself and showed a huge smile upon her face. "I'll ask: Pepper. Virginia. That's your real name, right?" Everyone laughed again, and Tony looked at the audience:

"I'm kidding! It was a joke, I know her name…" He returned to look at the woman in front of him. "It's Virginia, right?"

"Yes…"

"Okay. Where was I?"

"You were proposing me." Pepper replied serious.

"Oh! Right. So…" He cleared his throat, assuming a serious pose. "Virginia. My love...my someone to come back to, my reason for living. My rock, my shield, my parachute, God, how bad I am at this…" The journalists laughed, but Tony and Pepper, stuck in the moment, didn't even hear them. "I'm a pain in the ass, you know that more than anyone. But I love you. And I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Then the audience was consumed by silence.

All stared at Pepper, who didn't take her eyes off Tony's. The man, still on his knees, couldn't move a single part of his body, not even to breathe. And so he remained, until he heard the words coming out of her thin lips:

"Of course I do…"

"Phew!" He let his breath get out in relief, his body finally relaxing. "That was harder than I thought!" He ignored the laughter of the audience and held Pepper's hand, putting the ring on her finger. Then the woman pulled him, so he could stand up and she could kiss him on the lips with passion, but also with discretion; after all, they were in front of dozens of people and cameras.

"So? I did well?" Tony asked quietly, amid the applause.

"You did very well, Mr. Stark. But I still can't believe you told Happy to carry the ring in his pocket for nearly 10 years…"

"I was waiting for the right moment!"

"10 years!"

"Hey, better late than ne…" Tony was interrupted by another kiss.

"I love you, you huge idiot." Pepper said with a huge smile on her face.

"I love you too…" He said, still sort of bewildered. "Hey, how about we get out of here?"

"What about the press conference?"

"We just broke everything here. They won't want to hear anything else."

"You might be right, but what about Peter? He's waiting in the car…"

"Happy will take him home. He won't be needed for what we're gonna do, anyway…" Tony leered. So Pepper smiled and pulled him off the stage.


End file.
